The art field relating to portable fans has been fairly well advanced, and in the most typical formats of such portable fans, devices generally take the format of a flashlight assembly having a fan head mounted at the top end, and wherein the casing contains a pair of batteries to electrically operate the fan. Such types of devices have been used for a variety of purposes and reasons, such as typically, use on barbeque grills in order to create a rapid expansion of the zone of ignited coals therein. Other uses consist of small battery powered portable fans which permit the user to evacuate smoke from the environmental area immediately adjacent the user's face to eliminate, or at least minimize the inhaling of second hand smoke.
Other such portable fans are provided with heaters, such that the fan may be utilized as a heating device but rapidly transported from one location to another.
It has been determined that an additional use for such portable fans would be to provide a portable fan device which can be utilized by sunbathers incident to their sunbathing activities. It has now become known that excessive exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun can have a deleterious effect to health, and it is now deemed desirable to provide a device which not only has a cooling effect upon the body during the sunbathing process, but can also be utilized for the purpose of administering sunshielding chemical compositions. With respect to the portable fan devices as now exist in the prior art, no such device presently exists which will accomplish the application, automatically, of sunscreening agents or chemicals. For example, various types of portable fans are disclosed by a variety of prior art patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,647,323 illustrates a typical battery operated fanning device which is particularly adapted for use in connection with charcoal barbeque grills in order to enhance or rapidly expand the zone of igniting the coals contained in the grill. The device incorporates a fan carried adjacent the head of the device, which is powered electrically by a pair of batteries contained within a battery casing, and a switch means for activating the electrical circuit in order to actuate the fan to blow air out of the upper head portion. The device may be conveniently clamped to the barbeque grill, and create air movement over the coals in order to effect rapid ignition thereof.
Other versions of portable electric fans are disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,909,316, as well as 2,595,406, and finally 2,803,527. In each of these three instances, different formats of portable electric fan units are disclosed wherein a fan device is interconnected by electrical means with a source of power such as batteries, and the unit being a hand held type device which permits the user a wide variety of functions. Typically, such portable fans are utilized for blowing smoke away from the user's environment, or as indicated above, creating a field of air movement to facilitate the ignition of charcoal grills. It is apparent that such types of portable fans can similarly be used by sunbathers in order to achieve a cooling effect on the skin while it is clear that such devices will in fact afford a fanning or cooling effect when utilized, nevertheless, no device has been provided which will permit the user to also apply cooling fluids in the form of a mist, or even more importantly, the fluid which contains a sunblocking chemical agents, in mist form, onto the skin of the body.